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Socialist Party of Malaysia

July 17, 2011 -- Green Left Weekly -- A week after Malaysian authorities failed to stop people taking to
the streets of the capital Kuala Lumpur on July 9 to demand free and
fair elections, six activists from the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM)
remained in detention without trial. The detainees include federal member of parliament Dr Jeyakumar
Deveraj, who has been hailed by a prominent local writer as “the
Malaysian saint of the poor”.

PSM secretary general S. Arutchelvan told Green Left Weekly
that he agreed with the civil society organisers of the July 9 Bersih
2.0 (“bersih” means clean in Malay) that the number of people who defied
incredible police repression to come out in the streets that day was
about 50,000. Police reportedly detained up to 1600 people and repeatedly fired teargas into peaceful groups of people.

Jeyakumar Devaraj, Sungai
Siput MP, is currently detained without trial under the Emergency Ordinance, together with five other Socialist Party members, on suspicion of “causing civil unrest by
any means”.

The detention of these socialists was designed to intimidate
people from supporting a broad mass rally for free and fair
elections that called for July 9 by civil society groups united in
the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih, which means “clean”).

July 1, 2011 -- Emergency protest outside Malaysian Airlines offices in Sydney to demand
the release of 30 Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) detained since June
25 and accused of waging "war against the king"... the "evidence" a few
political t-shirts in their posession! These arrests are part of a
crackdown on oppositionists in the lead up to the July 9 Bersih 2.0
democracy march in Kuala Lumpur. Photos by Peter Boyle.

June 27, 2011 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- At least 31 members of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (Parti Sosialis Malaysia, PSM) -- including member of parliament Dr Michael Jeyakumar -- have been detained by police. The Malaysian government is whipping up a massive red-scare campaign around the Bersih 2.0 rally planned for July 9 (see statement below), and is increasingly resorting to repression to try to prevent an expected huge attendance.

Joint statement of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) and the Socialist Alliance (Australia)

May 18, 2011 -- The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) and the Socialist Alliance in
Australia denounce the recent agreement made between the governments of
Malaysia and Australia, whereby Australia will send 800 asylum seekers
who have been detained by Australian authorities to Malaysia in exchange
for 4000 refugees currently in Malaysia.

The arrangement for this “Malaysian solution” to asylum seekers
attempting to arrive in Australia clearly shows that the Australian
government is washing its hands of its responsibility to protect
refugees and is “off-shoring” or “outsourcing” the violation of refugee
rights to Malaysia, a country with no proper legal instruments to
protect the rights of refugees. Both the governments of Malaysia and
Australia have not taken the plight of refugees and asylum seekers
seriously, and only treat them like trade-able commodities.

May 12, 2011 -- The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) denounces the recent agreement made between the governments of Malaysia and Australia, whereby Australia will send 800 asylum seekers who have been detained by Australian authorities to Malaysia in exchange for 4000 refugees currently in Malaysia.

The arrangement for this “Malaysian solution” to asylum seekers attempting to arrive in Australia clearly shows that the Australian government is washing its hands off its responsibility to protect refugees and is “off-shoring” or “outsourcing” the violation of refugees' rights to Malaysia, a country with no proper legal instruments to protect the rights of refugees.

Both the governments of Malaysia and Australia have not taken the plight of refugees and asylum seekers seriously, and only treat them like tradeable commodities.

STOP PRESS: Socialist Party of Malaysia leaders, May Day marchers arrested

May 1, 2011 -- Malaysiakini -- PSM secretary-general S Arutchelvan earlier tried to negotiate
with the police near the Chow Kit monorail station before being taken
away by police officers. Arutchelvan, one of the key members of the
Labour Day organising committee, was supposed to have joined others in
the march from Chow Kit to the Dataran Merdeka. In a a short
press conference prior to his arrest, Arutchelvan told reporters that he
considers the police obstruction to the peaceful march a "violation of
basic rights". He also said that he had already informed the
police prior to the march, and said such a notice is sufficient as
opposed to a police permit.

Statement by the Socialist Party of Malaysia (Parti Sosialis Malaysia)

March 26, 2011

1. The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) strongly denounces the imperialist
military intervention in Libya. The so-called “humanitarian” intervention
serves nothing to protect civilians or prevent loss of lives or support
democracy in Libya, but only the effort of Western imperialist powers to secure
their interests in the oil-rich country as well as to contain the spread of
Arab revolutions. The bombardment on Libya has an ultimate aim by the
imperialists to destroy and derail the revolutionary waves in the Arab world.

2. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 passed on March
17, 2011, has authorised the United States, United Kingdom, France and other
imperialist powers and their allies to enforce a “no-fly zone” by launching air
strikes on Libya, during the eighth anniversary of US-led invasion on Iraq.

February 13, 2011 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal-- The world
economic system is being buffeted by a series of crises, and this in
turn has led to economic hardships for millions of people throughout the world. In
many countries, the people are suffering in silence, but there are
increasing signs of protest. There
were mass protests in Britain because of tuition fee hikes, protests in
France protesting the raising of the pensionable age, in Spain and
Ireland because of wide budgetary cuts that have slashed spending on
social services such as health care and welfare, and most recently,
popular revolts that have brought down dictatorships in Tunisa and
Egypt.

It
is highly probable that the unfolding economic crisis is going to continue
sending ripples across the world, and these are to going to affect us
negatively in Malaysia. There is therefore an urgent need for us to
understand what is happening and why, so that we can prepare ourselves
for the economic trials ahead. Unfortunately the conventional media's
coverage is superficial and misleading.

Socialist Alliance local councillor Sam Wainwright addresses a rally in support of the Egyptian revolution, outside Wesley Church, Perth, Western Australia, on February 5, 2011. Organised by the Egyptian Community in Perth.

February 4, 2011 -- Most trends in the socialist left internationally have rallied to offer solidarity to revolutionary upsurge in Egypt, Tunisia and the wider Arab world.

January 31, 2011 -- Parti Sosialis Malaysia -- A last-minute mobilisation and continuous rain did not hinder about 70
protesters from assembling to call for Hosni Mubarak to step down as
well as showing support to the brave people of Egypt. The protest and memorandum handing ceremony was led by Mohamad Sabu, from the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, PAS) central committee, and S. Arutchelvan, Socialist Party of Malaysia (Part Sosialis Malaysia, PSM) secretary general.

The group walked a short distance and was greeted by around 50 police
personnel in riot gear blocking the front entrance of the embassy. There
were no confrontation with the police, who also desperately tried to get
a representative from the embassy to take the memorandum. Like in
Egypt, the situation at the embassy was equally uncertain as no one
wanted to take the responsibility to receive the memorandum.

December 11, 2010 -- A successful "socialism conference" was held in Manila from November 27 to 28. The conference was organised by the socialist Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM, Party of the Labouring Masses) and the socialist-feminist regional network, Transform Asia. The conference was attended by 100 delegates, leaders of the PLM from Metro Manila and other leading socialists of the Philippine left, as well as 13 international guests.

The international organisations represented were the Malaysian Socialist Party (PSM); People’s Democratic Party (PRD-Indonesia); Working People’s Association (PRP-Indonesia); Political Committee of the Poor-People’s Democratic Party (KPRM-PRD-Indonesia); Left Turn Thailand; Socialist Alliance (Australia); the Left Party (Sweden); the General Confederation of Nepalese Trade Unions (Gefont); the Vietnamese Union of Friendship Organisations; and the Centre for Environment and Community Asset Development (Vietnam).

November 17, 2010 -- Comrade G. Balasundram was stabbed to death on November 16, 2010. He is really, truly no more, but the mind refuses to register this unacceptable reality. That’s because he was so alive, bubbling with life, loud, boisterous. So many of us have seen him, or had a meal with him or got a call or a witty sms from him just in the 24 hours before his sudden and tragic death.

Just a day earlier, he had turned up at the Ipoh High Court as co-counsel with Vengkat, his soul buddy, to appeal the conviction of four activists, including Segar of Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM), who had gathered with hundreds of others to demand the relocation of a rubber factory that was polluting the Kuala Kuang New Village in Chemor.

November 2, 2010 -- On 1 May 1996, Jawatankuasa Sokongan Masyarakat Ladang (JSML), the plantation workers' coalition of Jeringan Rakyat Tertindas (JERIT, the Oppressed People's Network), launched the campaign for a minimum monthly wage for estate workers. It called for a total revamp of the highly exploitative colonial wage system which assigned estate workers a daily wage that was subject to market price, weather conditions and crop yield, all factors beyond the control of the worker.

Public support for the RM750 monthly wage demand grew as the campaign shone the spotlight on the scandalous contrast between the affluent yet rapacious plantation capitalists and the then 300,000 estate workers who lived in poverty and backwardness. What was more, it was revealed that the largest shareholder in every major plantation company was the government itself, in the guise of agencies such as Permodalan Nasional Berhad and Amanah Saham Nasional.